After I Lived in Norway, America Felt Backward. Here’s Why - A crash course in social democracy.

[Xipe Totec]

Some years ago, I faced up to the futility of reporting truths about America’s disastrous wars, and so I left Afghanistan for another mountainous country far away. It was the polar opposite of Afghanistan: a peaceful, prosperous land where nearly everybody seemed to enjoy a good life, on the job and in the family.

It’s true that they didn’t work much–not by American standards, anyway. In the United States, full-time salaried workers supposedly laboring 40 hours a week actually average 49, with almost 20 percent clocking more than 60. These people, on the other hand, worked only about 37 hours a week, when they weren’t away on long paid vacations. At the end of the workday, about four in the afternoon (perhaps three during the summer), they had time to enjoy a hike in the forest, a swim with the kids, or a beer with friends—which helps explain why, unlike so many Americans, they are pleased with their jobs.

(snip)

Four years on, thinking I should settle down, I returned to the United States. It felt quite a lot like stepping back into that other violent, impoverished world, where anxiety runs high and people are quarrelsome. I had, in fact, come back to the flip side of Afghanistan and Iraq: to what America’s wars have done to America. Where I live now, in the homeland, there are not enough shelters for the homeless. Most people are either overworked or hurting for jobs; the housing is overpriced, the hospitals crowded and understaffed, the schools largely segregated and not so good. Opioid or heroin overdose is a popular form of death, and men in the street threaten women wearing hijabs. Did the American soldiers I covered in Afghanistan know they were fighting for this?

DUCKING THE SUBJECT

One night I tuned in to the Democrats’ presidential debate to see if they had any plans to restore the America I used to know. To my amazement, I heard the name of my peaceful mountain hideaway: Norway. Bernie Sanders was denouncing America’s crooked version of “casino capitalism” that floats the already-rich ever higher and flushes the working class. He said that we ought to “look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.”

http://www.thenation.com/article/after-i-lived-in-norway-america-felt-backward-heres-why/

[daleanime]

1. K&R.....

[leftcoastmountains]

2. I agree.

When I turned 40 I took a year off and traveled around the world starting in London and ending in China.
I kept saying to myself Americans have been duped. In fact when Australians would ask me why Americans
don't travel or if they do it's only for 2 weeks at a time, I would tell them because we were brainwashed. We thought only rich people could travel for longer periods of time. And we think that we have to work, work,
work until we die.

[Xipe Totec]

3. We're just beginning to realize where the "Worker's Paradise" really is. nt

[Pharaoh]

7. I don't know

but you are lucky to have been able to take a year off and travel the world at 40.

I could not afford to do that, even now at sixty a couple of nice trips would clean out my savings.

[leftcoastmountains]

9. I was lucky to meet a few people here that spent their lives

traveling crewing boats etc. I realized it was possible. I have always lived
way below my means and saved etc. I traveled on the cheap. I saved way
more than I needed. Youth Hostels are incredibly cheap. Eating on the run
etc. There are books out there on where to go where to stay. A lot of people
don't want to travel that way. But I found it exciting. But I wasn't married and no kids.
Even though it was in 1992-1993 I still believe it is possible to do. It just depends on what
you want.

[Pharaoh]

11. No Kids or child support!

yes, that would have helped!

But I am putting a little away for it.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. This may be the best article I've read on DU since 2001.

[RoccoR5955]

5. A year and a half ago.

I went to visit my girlfriend in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Let me tell you, when I came back to the US, I felt as if I lived in a third world country.
They work 35 hour weeks, with at least 6 weeks vacation time. They close up shops at about 8 pm the latest, and are closed on Sunday.
The 1% work us like slaves, and tell us that it is freedom, when we are nothing more than their serfs. It's about time that WE THE PEOPLE took back our country!

[Xipe Totec]

6. We have our own Pravda in the US to keeps us from seeing what happens beyond our walls. nt

[elmac]

14. Americans could be living that dream now

but reaganomics and the best government money can buy destroyed the American dream forever. Those too young don't remember what an economic superpower this country was, they only see the corrupt, condemned society they were born into.

[pansypoo53219]

8. a i heard in denmark-america blah.

[Xipe Totec]

15. Are you using Google translate, or are you three sheets to the wind? nt

[newthinking]

10. The Parlimentary system is also part of the reason they were able to get where they are

It is much more difficult for the 1% to buy off a Parlimentary Democracy than a two party state. If they take over a party(s) people can create new parties and still have some people power while they grow (through collations, etc).

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Right wingers look at that picture and think "Arrest these people for blocking commerce!"

[Dont call me Shirley]

13. We must turn America back into a Democratic Socialist country. Undo the Reagan Revolution!

[EdwardBernays]

16. As an expat

That now lives in Europe and has for over a decade I have to agree with the OP.

Europe ain't perfect, but the standard of living and quality of life is much much better.

I have two kids and they have never even heard of a school shooting. There's so much help for everyone from the government and people march in the streets and fight for protections for the poor and elderly and children.

It doesn't always work and austerity was awful here, but even in the worst of times:

Universal health care
Free University education
Child allowances to help families
Weeks of paid holidays.
Months of maternity leave.
Progressive taxes to help small businesses and the poor
Etc etc.

And hey guess what. When I vote here there's NEVER more than a few minutes wait. Like literally 2-3 minutes.

Now you couldn't pay me to bring my family back.

[ErikJ]

17. Greed is the problem

The senior execs/owners/shareholders could easily get by on much less but think they have to keep labor as low as possible to show a growth ...and higher salaries for the elites.

[Xipe Totec]

18. It's hoarding behavior. We need to recognize it for the disease that it is

Like alcoholism or drug addiction.

[rusty quoin]

19. Yes it's like that.

And it is the worst of them for society. It's also a big cause of alcohol and drug addictions.

[awoke_in_2003]

20. A very good read

If I could live anywhere it would be Scandinavia.